SPRING GARDEN (KYW Newsradio) — The 20 schools on the School District of Philadelphia’s closure list continue to make their cases to stay open as parents, students and staff at Laura Waring Elementary School in Spring Garden are pushing for the district to reconsider its decision.
Donna Perkins said she was taken aback when she learned of plans to close Waring Elementary at 18th and Green streets.
“It was a little bit of shock, of course disappointment,” she said.
Waring students would instead go to Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount. The Waring Building would be used for a Masterman Middle School.
"Ten blocks might not sound like a lot, but for students that maybe don't have transportation, don't have a family car – you know, they're walking independently – that's a big ask," said Perkins, who chairs the Friends of Waring, which supports the volunteers that run the school’s library.
Gloria Castro is a parent whose son is in second grade at Waring, and said he went to Bache Martin for pre-K.
“That school already is full. I can't imagine them putting more kids in that school,” she said. “The school's necessary. The teachers. This is already a community. Most of the families that have kids here have had their kids that are probably now in high school here.”
The district said the school is underutilized and the building is in poor condition. Perkins said the data needs to be viewed in the context of a neighborhood school valued by the community.